AFC Final Ride!!!

Date: 9/3/06
Mileage: 30

Funds Raised:
(Donate Here)

$17,600.00 for Kupenda (estimated total... waiting for the exact numbers)
Donation from Mr. and Mrs. Matthews
Donation from Tara Witmer
Donation from GregShenanigans (owner of Shenanigans)
Donation from Jeanie
Donations from tons of others who supported us at Ocean City
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$10,150.00 for
Donations from tons of people who supported us at Ocean City
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

The day of the AFC finishing ride!!!

(Special thanks to
Alyssa (on the left in black) and
HardCoreAndy (on the right)
They were both extremely helpful in getting tons of PR for AFC)

At 9:00am we met in Berlin (which is about 7 miles outside of Ocean City) with about 60 or so of our close friends and family for the final AFC Finishing Ride. Heather, Weezal, and Cindy did so much work to get this whole ride together and we really appreciated it! Carly, DeeDee, Lauren, Laura, Lance, Val, Annie, MommaD, PapaD and Janine also deserve a big thanks for waking up super early that morning to help with the setup and registration for the event.

(Adventures For The Cure Final Ride T-Shirt)

We gave out our Final Ride T-Shirts, DrinkMoreWater provided the bottled water, and Dunkin Donuts provided some bagels!

Before the ride began we had a short ceremony and talk. We had some amazing surprises!! Jim Cangialosi and Kim Loman from MiniMed were there and they brought with them the new MiniMed Paradigm which is their new 'Realtime Insulin Pump and Glucose Monitoring System'. It is an amazing devise which reads your blood sugar levels once every 5 seconds! This is amazing! It will change the lives of all diabetics.

(Jim and Kim with Adam after bringing the new insulin pump)

(Tess and Adam getting ready for the AFC Final Ride)

Tess, the type 1 diabetic who road with Adam in Iowa for a 40 mile day, was also there and she was the one who made a surprise appearance to present the new pump to Adam at the ceremony! Her whole family drove all the way from Georgia just to come to the ride and hang out with us! She rode on a tandem with Adam for the last 30 miles of our ride.

After the ride we all went to lunch and then took a break on the beach. Adam also took some time out of the day to fulfill his promise to MamaD that he would finally shave his beard!!

(He is soooooo good looking without a beard!!
whoooo hoooo!!)

(Unfortunately for many he is already taken ;)
Heather is amazing!)

The final party was at Shenanigan's Irish Pub. We sold some T-Shirts, ADA wrist bands, gave two speeches for everyone at the bar in the middle of songs from the Irish Band that was playing that night, and just had a great time! We cannot thank Sheningans and it's owner, Greg, enough for all they have done for us.

(Hanging out at Shenanigans with Tara, Lauren,
GorgeousMegan (my sister), Weezal, OldmanFil, and Keith)

Side Note:
Shenanigan's has the best beer I have ever had. I once asked Greg 'why is your beer so much better than everyone else's?' he told me it had something to do with the way he keeps the beer fresh and rotating the kegs or something. Whatever the reason, the point of the story is that before AFC ever got started Adam and I went to Shenanigan's and had two of the best Boddington's Beers we have ever had (it was the beginning of summer 2005). Later that summer we decided that we would bike from Catonsville to Ocean City to have a beer and then bike back the next day (320 miles total). All for a beer. We thought about it and we decided that since 320 miles was such an extremely far distance for a 2 day bike ride we might be able to get people to sponsor us and donate to American Diabetes Association because of our efforts!

(GregShenanigans!!)

So... The moral of the story... If not for amazing Shenanigan's and their amazing owner Greg and their amazing beer... AFC would not exist :)





-Pattt